Entrepreneur Resources

Best Small Business Forums

Our list of the best small business forums and entrepreneur communities may be the secret weapon you've been looking for. Couple our entrepreneur resources with these helpful forums and you'll be unstoppable.

If you are struggling with small business challenges, entrepreneur resource sites like ours can provide a ton of answers.
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To be sure, the entrepreneur resources and articles on our site educate you on hundreds of topics that are important to small business owners like you.

But what if you have very specific small business questions that you want answered? In that case, reading articles about small business may be an inefficient way to get answers.

Where Can I Get Answers To My Small Business Questions?

One option is that you can post a question via the comment form on our entrepreneur articles, and we will do our best to answer your questions about small businesses in a timely manner.

However, a better solution is to ask your small business question within a small business forum or entrepreneur community. On the web, forums allow you to ask a specific question and get the small business answers you want from the experts who frequent the forum.

The Best Small Business Forums

You have many small business forums to choose from. That's a problem because some are great and some are a complete waste of time.

To make your life easier, we've written a separate article on how to choose a good small business forum. In addition, we've vetted some forums and are pleased to present you with this list of good small business communities:

StartupNation Forums - This is one of the best forums for entrepreneurs. Categories include things like business planning, startup funding, elevator pitches, marketing, intellectual property, sales, homepreneurs, customer services and many other excellent forums for entrepreneurs.

Intuit Small Business Community - You can get answers to your small business questions at the Intuit Community. There is also a separate entrepreneurs forum for QuickBooks questions and answers. Ask a small business question and you'll get a bunch of answers. Moreover, the Intuit small business community will vote on the answers and tell you which one they think is best. The only drawback to this community is that the number of categories is more limited than in some other forums. Still, the categories that are there -- Get Customers, Get Online, Manage Money, Starting Your Business, Tax and Business Structure, and Hiring and Managing People – are rock solid.

BizBuySell.com Small Business Community Network - If you are looking to get answers from real experts, this is the place to ask your small business questions. The people who answer questions at the BizBuySell.com forum seem to really know their stuff. In contrast to some of the other sites mentioned in our entrepreneur forums roundup, this site is very focused on its two niches: buying a business and selling a business. This is a fairly new small business community but it's well-designed and shows a lot of promise – definitely worthy of making our short list!

Bank of America Small Business Forums - This is a very extensive set of entrepreneur forums, covering business opportunities, starting a business, home based business, franchise opportunities, financing tips, merchant services, accounting and budgeting, taxes and payroll, employee benefits and retirement planning, running your business, managing employees and hr, legal and insurance, technology management, and internet/ecommerce.

The Young Entrepreneurs Forum - There's a hotbed of activity in the entrepreneurial forums at YoungEntrepreneur.com. Their free membership-based forums are home to a thriving entrepreneurial community that shares tips, information and war stories.

About.com Entrepreneur Forum - About.com has always been a trusted destination site for information, so it's no surprise that their small business forums have made our list of top entrepreneur community sites. The only downside is that there appear to be fewer responses to questions than in some of the other entrepreneur communities we've discussed.

You've now got the answer to a common question -- Where Can I Get Answers to My Small Business Questions? – so the next step is to ask your question on one of these forums. They are all free, so there's no reason not to ask your question in multiple small business forums.

Over time, you'll discover that one of them is right for you. Don't forget to give back to the community you decide to become a part of. If you only ask questions and never offer any answers, that's not consider good forum etiquette.

Before you jump off to these small business forums, don't forget that we've got over 100,000 entrepreneur resources for you on our site. Between our Gaebler.com entrepreneur resources and these forums, you're well-armed to handle any entrepreneurial challenge!

By the way, if we've missed any good small business forums, please let us know.

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Do you agree that small business forums and entrepreneur communities are invaluable? Care to share any stories regarding your own experiences asking for business advice on the Web? We welcome all comments, tips, questions and suggestions.

Natasha

4/22/2009

Thanks. I saw your tweet about this on Twitter. This is a great list. I am a new entrepreneur and I have a TON of questions!